Seeing with new eyes

Tag Archives: Conservative

Politics is often not considered a spiritual subject. Despite that prejudice, there are things that the spiritual seeker can learn from politics. It is definitely an area of great polarization and illusion.

Right and Left, Conservative and Liberal, are labels for individual tendencies that if understood in full apply to many aspects of our lives. The label “Conservative” from the word “conserve” reflects a desire to protect something. In politics this could mean to protect a system or way of life that one views as the good or desirable. The conservative mindset is suspicious of change.

The Liberal mindset in many respects is the polar opposite. This mindset sees imperfection in most institutions, customs, laws and quickly loses patience with slow change. The past is not an ideal. Rather the past is the old, the tired, and the evil that must be corrected (immediately if not sooner)! It is not an accident that former President Obama used the word “change” in many of his campaign slogans, e.g., “Vote for Change,” “Change We Can Believe In,” “Organize for Change,” and “A leader who can deliver change.”

A person who considers him or herself a protector of the environment could be accurately called an environmental conservative. A person can very easily be liberal in one sphere of life, and conservative in another. Almost everyone has something they want to protect, and almost everyone would like some change.

The truth is that many people polarized in a conservative viewpoint see need for some change, just not too quick or too radical. Those polarized in a liberal viewpoint also have those things they want to protect or conserve, but they are far more willing to take chances on untested solutions.